Schlagwort: tips

My first destination in Australia now got my new favourite city in the world. Being overwhelmed at first and feeling uncomfortable, I fell in love more and more day by day and now I am already excited to go back.

Besides the wonderful cafés, pubs, shops and sights obviously the people I met there are a huge reason for my Melbourne love as well.

In this travel guide, I tell you all my beloved places to go to, things to see and facts to know that I discovered in 2 ½ weeks in the city and I will hopefully be adding more experiences and favourites when I go back soon.

Things to know

When you arrive at the Melbourne Tullamarine airport you can take the Skybus to the city for 19$

Melbourne has a Free Tram Zone in the CBD area which means that you don’t need to pay when travelling in this zone or when you use the Free Tram Route 35 that goes around the CBD. This makes exploring the city 100 times easier, quicker and cheaper and it was so practical to not worry about your ticket.

I only paid for going to St. Kilda and Brighton Beach (both 20-30 minutes away from the centre) and otherwise I used the free tram and walked the rest.

Melbourne has a free Wifi in the whole CBD area which was great to use google maps, check out places and it also worked in my hostel (as most hostel Wifi’s are shit :D )

I never ever thought that Melbourne is so cold! I’ve been there in the End of September / Beginning of October and even though it was 18-24 degrees at that time, I always wore all my warm clothes because the wind is freezing. When you are in the sun and protected from the wind it is nice but in the shades and windy streets, it feels like winter.

The vibe of the city reminds me of a mix between London, Seattle and New York (even though I haven’t been to NY). I can’t really describe why, but the people, their style, the shops and restaurants have this urban hipster vibe (in a very good way!) – especially Fitzroy.

There are a lot of awesome Vintage Shops in Melbourne. This is another reason why I really want to go back – so I can shop the perfect Vintage Levi’s Mom Jeans and Shorts as well as Dr. Martens, cool Hoodies, band t-shirts and awesome jackets…

Fitzroy is the coolest, hippest, nicest area in Melbourne and especially the Brunswick street is awesome! Nice shops, cafés, restaurants, pubs and vintage shops.

Apparently, Melbourne has the best coffee in the world! I don’t know if that is really the case, but at least they have the most coffee shops in the world (per person), but not the big chains – Melbourners love their individual, cute coffee places and you find them at every corner.

Where to Stay

Of course, I can’t tell you which place is the best to stay in Melbourne as I haven’t tried them all.

In the beginning, I’ve stayed in the CBD area the Nomads All Nations hostel that was cheap, but not very clean and nice. The vibe and the kitchen weren’t that great and considering that it wasn’t even a good price (24$ for a 12-bed-dorm). They offer free pancakes for breakfast as well as tea, coffee, pasta and rice which is great!

Afterwards, I moved into The Nunnery in Fitzroy. I really recommend this area and also this hostel, but it is also pretty expensive (35$ for 12-bed-dorm). The vibe there is super chilled, it isn’t that big and it’s easy to meet people. Everything is clean and they offer free breakfast, tea, coffee and pasta as well as specials like a pub crowl, soup, BBQ or movie night every week.

What to do

For me, the most important thing when visiting a city, is walking through its streets and soaking up its vibes. Not the sights but the streets, buildings and people give it its charm.

You will see a lot of Asian people, shops, supermarkets and restaurants, many barbers & hairdressers, coffeeshops, chocolateries & bisquiteries.

At Federation Square a lot of open-air (Veranstaltungen) take place. You also find an aboriginal museum and ACMI Museum (modern, technology) there. The immigration museum is another recommended one on Federation St.

The Eureka Tower is the highest building in Melbourne and you can enjoy an awesome view from above over the city. Sadly I didn’t do it, but it is on the top of my things to do next time for sure!

The Queen Victoria Market is one of my favourite places in Melbourne. They don’t just sell fresh fruits & veggies for a great price (and offer so many different options), but also the best hummus I ever had and yummy bread, sweets and take-away dishes. There is also a part that sells shoes, clothes, souvenirs and everything else you could think of.

Another market in Melbourne is the South Melbourne Market that is meant to be great as well.

South of the Yarra River, you can find the Royal Botanical Garden (that I only saw a small part of and want to go back to!)…

…as well as the National Art Gallery that had a Moma exhibition from New York at the moment and the Arts Centre Melbourne where I really wanted to see the Australian Ballet dancing Spartacus, but the tickets where too expensive sadly.

St. Pauls Cathedral, State Library Victoria, City Square and Melbourne Town Hall are worth a look as well.

Walk101 do a Free Walking Tour in the centre of the city as well as in St. Kilda. Originally I wanted to do both, but I only made it to the centre tour which was a lot of fun and I highly recommend it.

You go to the meeting point, join the tour, meet a lot of other travellers, learn a lot about the city and history as well as some insider tips from the tour guide and in the end you pay as much as you can / want to.

The laneways in Melbourne are very famous with their street art. You just need to walk through some smaller streets and you will find amazing artworks. At ACDC lane and Flinders Lane (and the areas around), you will find the most famous pieces and walls. But also the streets of Fitzroy are great to see some pretty street art. The cool thing is, that they change daily/weekly because artists make new sprays all the time.

Furthermore, Arcades are very popular in Melbourne and I recommend to walk through the beautiful Royale Arcade and Block Arcade for it’s amazing architecture and the Centreway Arcade to find cute book, vintage and soap shops.

To get a little bit outside the big city vibes I highly recommend to go to St. Kilda for one day. Especially when the weather is nice. The pier is only 25 minutes by tram away from the centre and you will find some vacation and beach vibes there. It’s great to stroll through the pedestrian zone and the not so busy streets, enjoy the peace in the Botanical Gardens or sit at the beach.

Behind the famous amusement park, I found a real oasis: VegOut an urban garden community that allows you to walk through the patches and forget that you are in a huge city.

Another great getaway that is even more quiet and peaceful is Brighton. A suburb of Melbourne about 25 minutes by train away from the city centre. The famous Brighton Bath Boxes are located there and you can enjoy some sunny time at the beach.

Where to eat

Melbourne and especially Fitzroy is full of amazing (vegan) food places. Literally, every pub offers vegetarian and even vegan dishes but you can also find hundreds of beautiful, hipster, chic cafés that all have avocado toast, granola and even acai on their menu. Many coffee shops sell raw slices and vegan cookies as well as delicious looking banana bread or carrot cake.

It would already be worth coming back to Melbourne just to try out more food places, as I obviously couldn’t (or wouldn’t want) to afford eating out every day for every meal – but I really wished to!

Degraves Street

Degraves St is a pedestrian street where cafés, coffee shops and bakeries as well as restaurants and bistros are side by side and everyone can for sure find something to satisfy their taste buds.

I’ve been to Mock Turtle on Degraves St and…

Mock Turtle

…here I ate the best Avocado Toast of my life. I can not really imagine someone being able to top it. Sadly it wasn’t vegan and I forgot to ask for a vegan option, but it was amazing and so worth it… I mean look at the variety of toppings and the bread was just delicious (which isn’t always the case if you are used to the great German bread :P ) and the Avo smash perfectly ripe and creamy. The price was pretty high but I would still always come back!

Slow Poke

Another great breakfast place that is located on Brunswick St. A super quiet café that has a small courtyard where you can sit peacefully and enjoy the sunshine. Their orange juice is fresh pressed and they have some amazing looking baked sweets. They also have a yummy lunch menu.

I ate buckwheat chocolate granola with coconut yogurt and cacao nibs, almond milk and canned peas which was amazing. The Avo Toast looked good, but by far not reach the one from Mock Turtle.

Lentils as Anything

I fell in love with the philosophy of this place and I am so lucky that they have one local in Sydney (and about 5 in Melbourne, even in St. Kilda). This place is run by volunteers and they offer a completely vegan buffet for lunch and four dishes to choose from every day for dinner, as well as a dessert. At the end you pay the amount you think the food was worth it – and I tell you, the food is amazing!

We tried all the dishes they had that evening and everything was super delicious and I am really sad that I only went there once in Melbourne. I’ll definitely go there lots in Sydney!

Lord of the Fries

If you crave some unhealthy food, go to Lord of the Fries! A completely vegan fast food burger chain that make amazing burgers and delicious fries. They don’t advertise to be completely vegan, to attract everyone and to amaze them with the vegan deliciousness. And it’s also fairly cheap!

I ate a “Fish-burger” and sweet potato fries with vegan aioli and tried the normal fries and the classic burger from a friend and everything was yummy. But I still wouldn’t want to go there every second day, because you can really taste that it’s not healthy at all :D

Madam Saigon

… is a better option when you want something healthy and cheap. This bistro makes great Asian dishes and they have vegan options on their menu. I tried the vegan noodle salad bowl with tofu and it was delicious, fresh, healthy and great for lunch while only costing 11$ (7€).

Zero Gradi Gelateria

A friend who has been living in Melbourne for a while crowned this place to the best Gelataria in town and they have vegan flavours too (and not only fruit sorbets). I combined vegan chocolate and coconut and it tasted amazing – creamy, chocolat-y and not too sweet.

More great (vegan/healthy) places that I sadly could not try this time:

Fina’s Vegetarian Café

Pina Chocolate Café

Veggie time

Smith & Daughter

Veggie bar

Nice Guy

Particle

Urban Projuice

Yong Green Food

Vegilicious

Radhey Chai Bar

Tahina Bar

Mantra Lounge

Rue de Creperie

Loving hut Richmond

And you will find a lot more by just walking through the streets (especially Brunswick St)!

As you probably already know, I am going to fly to Melbourne, Australia next week and start my work & travel adventure. I am already super excited, but also very nervous and a bit afraid of all the new things that will come my way.

In this post, I want to give you an overview over the plan I have (even tho there isn’t much that I have planned), resources I used and recommend to inform yourself for your own work & travel experience, as well as expectations I have for my gap year.

Twelve Apostles, 1999

My Plan

Everyone says that you shouldn’t plan too much (or at all?) because it will end up differently anyway and you can’t be prepared for every situation. But there are a few things that I did plan.

I fly with Qatar Airways on September 20th from Frankfurt to Melbourne with a stopover in Doha, Katar. For the first three nights I pre-booked a bed in a 4-bed-female-Dorm at the Nomads All Nations Hostel in Melbourne.

At the end of October, my cousin will fly to Sydney and we’ll explore the city and probably drive up north to Byron Bay and back to Sydney.

Afterwards, I thought about flying to Perth, Western Australia to explore this area of Australia until I’ll fly to Cains to meet my parents in mid-December.

Then I’ll drive with my family in a Camper down the East Coast, celebrate Christmas and end in Sydney on New Years Evening.

In May I am going to be an AuPair on the Sunshine Coast (near Brisbane) for a family with five kids and I am already super excited about that!

And then I’ll fly to Bali in mid-July to meet my best friends and explore the islands and Bangkok, Singapur, Chiang Mai and Kuala Lumpur before I fly back home.

That’s it – nothing more is planned. I’ll just follow my heart and see where it brings me.

Now I’ll share some great resources to get information, inspiration, motivation and more! I hope that my blog and my articles that I’ve planned for my trip will be a great resource for you as well – so stay tuned!

Books

I am obviously not going to take any books with me, but I made a document with the places I want to go (separated for every city/region) and another one with tips, internet pages and more that I’ll have on my laptop. That way I always have something to do for the first days in a new place.

A guide for your W&T experience in Australia* with lots of info and tips. I wouldn’t say it’s necessary to read a book like that, because you can find all the information on the internet for free, but it’s still a helpful guide.

A W&T diary* with many tips on where to go & what to do, plus a lot of inspiration and anticipation. Many pretty pictures to underline his travels and it makes me really want to write my own diary book!

Another great Work & Travel Australia story* that I really enjoyed reading! I probably wouldn’t recommend buying and reading so many books about it, because it’s not necessary at all, but I already knew for many years back in school that I want to do it, so I needed the time to go faster until I can start travelling :D

This book* tells you about some unexpected different habits Aussie’s have that you may not know. Funny to read and some things I didn’t already know.

I also got a book with the Highlights of Australia* and a Travel Guide for Australia that I used to find must-dos and beautiful places I want to go to.

Helpful articles

Many articles on what to pack: 1, 2, 3, 4 (cause everyone has their own preferences)

and many more articles on what to do on Pinterest!

Websites & Booking

I booked my Open-Return Ticket to Australia here! They offer great deals and it’s super easy.

Hostelworld.com is where I booked my first three nights in Melbourne. But later I found the same hostel for cheaper at booking.com so now I have both apps on my mobile and I’m going to check who has the best deals.

To find my Au Pair Family I used aupairworld and I can highly recommend it because there is no organisation or company behind it, so you don’t pay anything to them and you get to choose your family yourself.

Apps

Here are some more apps I downloaded (besides the ones I mentioned above).

Here we go – where I downloaded the map of Australia so I can use it offline

Money Control – to budget my money and have an eye on my spends

Dropbox – so safe important documents

Bank App – the app to my bank so I can make transfers and check my bank account from my phone

Spotify – so I can listen to music and podcasts on the go (I have the premium membership so I can download and listen offline)

YouTube

this Channel has many great videos about W&T and travelling in general

Expectations for my Gap Year

I know I should let everything come as it should and I shouldn’t have expectations, dreams and hopes for my year in Australia. But that’s just not how I work. I love making plans, setting goals, having to-do lists and such, so I obviously couldn’t hold myself back…

making lots of unforgettable experiences and memories

meeting lovely people, travelling together for a while

leaning to be more spontaneous

travelling alone, spending time with myself, learning to enjoy my own presence

being open to new people, opportunities and chances

growing as a person and overcoming my comfort zone

getting to know Australia and the Aussie’s not just as a tourist but more deeply

walking, running, hiking a lot and explore by foot

still doing yoga and sport on my travel

learn to surf

work on a farm and as a fruit picker

eating mostly plant-based vegan and as healthy & cheap as possible most of the time

eat the typical Shepherds Pie (veggie)

trying the healthy vegan food spots in Sydney, Melbourne, Byron Bay…

living a minimalistic life and learning to feel great with owning less

eating Acai Bowls with a view over the sea

watching sunrise and sunsets at the beach

taking pretty pictures and still posting blog posts frequently

starting to make videos

writing a travel diary

The pictures you saw in this blog post are analog photo’s from 1999 when my parents where in Australia.

* This is an affiliate link. If you purchase something through this link I get a commission and you support me and my work, but it doesn’t affect the price for you. Thanks!

Since I started my blog I really got into food photography. I fell in love with the process of cooking and baking, preparing, arranging, taking the picture at the end and of course: eating it afterwards.

Today I would like to share some inspiration, tips and things I learned through the process.

I am totally aware that I am not a pro at all, not even very good. I’m only a beginner trying my best, but I already learned a few things that I want to share with you. Maybe you want to start taking pretty pictures of your meals as well and sometimes it’s easier to learn from someone like me instead of someone that already has a lot of equipment, knowledge and practice and who can’t relate to the difficulties of a beginner.

Equipment

My Camera. I shoot with a Sony Alpha 6000* a system camera that takes amazing pictures while being very small and light – perfect for my travels and everything I wanted. It captures the colours very beautifully and blurs the backround nicely.

My Lens. I still only have the 16-50 mm lens that came with my camera because it works very well for what I need and I didn’t want to spend more money. Maybe in the future but for now I have to work with what I got.

The two pictures above are taken with my iPhone 6s

Phone. Your phone is also capable to take some great food pic’s. But I find that it isn’t possible to take good pictures in different angles – it just looks weird. But from above and 45° angle looks decent.

I don’t have anything else that I use for my food photography. No light, no tripod (that I use), no background/ underground. I only use what I can find at home: window light, wood floor, white table, kitchen cloth, cardigans, scarfs…

I once bought this grey plate, but I’ve only used it once or twice because the colour doesn’t make the food look very good…But I always use the same plate in pink! Both from IKEA

Ceramic. I did invest in some beautiful plates and bowls cause I really enjoy cute pottery and it’s nice to switch and vary them with different colours and meals. I always find lovely ceramic at IKEA and it’s affordable too.

Porridge

I think the easiest meal to style and photograph is porridge. Just mix some oats with hot water or plant milk and some extras (here are some porridge recipe inspirations if you need!). You can’t really make something wrong and it’s also super quick and without much effort.

very liquidy porridge – on purpouse

Tip #1 Make your porridge pretty thick rather than too liquidy (put more plant milk in after taking the pictures when you want to eat) because that way your toppings won’t sink into the porridge. Unless that’s the look you go for obviously – can look very cool as well.

I used a pullover and a sushi roll pad for the background

Nice Cream

…is pretty easy as well, but you have to be quick so that it doesn’t melt away and your toppings drown!

Tip #2 Get creative with your toppings. It’s always so much fun to choose and cut the fruit and then carefully place it where you’d like it to go without making it look to perfect (most of the time – exact lines can look great too!). Then look for small grains/seeds to add. Maybe even some flowers to top it off? The variety makes food pictures often look super interesting and eye-catching. But don’t overdo it! Too much stuff can look very confusing and extreme. Of course, minimalistic styling can look amazing as well – just try out what you like best!

simple and pretty- but nothing special

Examples of toppings

fruit/veggies used in the meal or as an extra

seeds, nuts, granola, dried fruit, shredded coconut, chocolate drops

hearbs

leaves or flowers

cutlery

drizzled syrup

The green-yellow-blue colour palette.

Tip #3 Stick to a colour palette. Especially when you use a lot of different ingredients it can look unappealing when you have too many colours that don’t fit to each other well. I would say 2-3 colours are enough for most pictures. A colourful food styling can look lovely, but the colours have to work with each other well.

I went for orange and green – just like the ingredientsThis is by far the prettiest bowl of oats I ever made. Simple but beautiful!

Tip #4 Leave the skin/ the greenery on. It might feel weird to put strawberries with their greens on your food – but it looks so pretty. Same with Mango, when you fold it over after cutting or cherries.

Bright strong colours, but they harmony pretty well with each other so that it works fine.

Tip #5 Stick to natural colours and stay away from bright colours (unless it’s the food itself of course). It just doesn’t fit well in my eyes.

No need a lot of effort. Just some greens, veggies, a few sesame seeds and chopsticks on the side.

Tip #6 Don’t overdo it with the styling. It’s in matters of taste, but I personally don’t like it when food pictures are loaded with too much food, ingredients, toppings etc. I’m more the basic and minimalistic kind.

Tip #7 Movement or „just-about-to-eat“ pictures can bring your food photography to the next level. I’m just starting to experiment with it myself, but I love the look and it’s even more eye-catching than just a pretty bowl of oats or a stack of pancakes.

Examples for movement in pictures

Cutlery digging into the bowl of oats, stabbing into a piece of pancake, rolling up some spaghetti or laying on the plate

pouring chocolate sauce or maple syrup over pancakes/waffles, pouring milk into a bowl of granola, coffee poured in a cup or smoothie in a jaw

hands holding the bowl of oats or the plate with pancakes into the frame, holding the cutlery or jaw

Tip #8 Don’t just focus on the bowl/plate itself, the scenery is just as important. Of course, you can leave it very plain and basic to put the focus on the food, but most of the time some little details in the background are essential for great pictures.

Underground & Background

It looks super beautiful when you have many different varieties of wood floor, plain coloured floor, marble floor etc. but I just didn’t take the time and effort to make some square meters of under-/background myself. Here are some DIY tutorials on how to make them yourself (1 and 2). I am for sure going to do that when I’ll be back from my travels and start getting into food photography more again! It makes your pictures look much more professional and put together, but until then just look for different floors or tables in your home or…

this picture is taken in my bedMy grey cardigan as the underground

Use kitchen cloth, bed linen or clothes as an underground or detail in your picture. Kitchen clothes are obvious, but it can also look great to take foot pictures in your bed or use cardigans and scarfs as an extra.

newspaper and a drink

Examples of details

kitchen cloth, blanket, clothes

cutlery

kitchen tools

fruits, veggies, ingredients (separate or in a small bowl)

seeds, nuts, granola scrattered

flowers, greens, leaves

drinks (tea, hot chocolate, smoothie, juice, coffee)

news paper

baking tray

two plates on a grey t-shirt

Tip #9 Have two or three plates/bowls with the meal and not only one. Style them similar but not same so you have a bigger variety and more possibilities to picture them. For example one in the foreground, the other blurred in the back or both next to each other/ behind each other as if you would want to eat with another person sitting in front of you.

Pancakes

Stacks of pancakes are a bit harder to capture because they tend to look crooked and the angle can be unflattering. But it’s so fun to style (and eat!) them so I love to experiment around and try different things.

Got inspired to make bigger and thinner „Crêpes“ and roll them up on Instagram, so that’s what I did

Putting banana between the pancakes or cutting pieces out – so many great ideas to incorporate into your own pictures.

Tip #11 Take the idea of a food picture you like and recreate it. I promise you it won’t look the same and copied in the end, but when you do this you start to look exactly at how it’s done. How the setting, food, toppings and details are arranged to make it look good in the end. You’ll learn and understand a lot in this process!